


The Primrose Path

by rokubiraijuu



Category: EXO (Band), Heart no Kuni no Alice | Alice in the Country of Hearts, Infinite (Band), SHINee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-11
Updated: 2015-02-11
Packaged: 2018-03-11 17:30:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3331964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rokubiraijuu/pseuds/rokubiraijuu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In dreams begin responsibilities, as a hapless Taemin learns after being unfortunate enough to be chosen as the next Alice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Primrose Path

**Author's Note:**

> this is a fic i decided to write based on my love of these dumb kpop boys and alice in wonderland, specifically the heart no kuni no alice adaptation. though the fic draws largely on inspiration from hnkna, it’s not hard to follow if you haven’t read it. it’s basically kpop as alice in wonderland. i should clarify that not all the characters from the bands will be making an appearance; i focus largely on key, taemin, and jonghyun of shinee; kai, chanyeol, luhan, baekhyun, suho, and tao from exo; and sunggyu, woohyun, sungyeol, and L of infinite. ratings and stuff might be subject to change idk? i apologize in advance for any inaccuracies or inconsistencies. i try my best, but i’m obviously not the idols nor am i actually from korea.

                “Ah, seriously – I actually have time to be here and this is what I get?” Angling himself away from his best friend’s frustrated shoves, Kai makes a mental note not to agree to play FIFA the next time he comes over. Whenever that’ll be.

                “Of course! You’re never here, so I have to take advantage of when you are and _totally_ kick your ass at this game. Let’s go again.”

                With a huff of disbelief, Kai looks over at Taemin, legs folded on the sofa, arms resting on a pillow situated in his lap, lips set in a thin line of determination as he lines up the players. “ _You’re_ kicking _my_ ass? I’ve won every game for the last forty minutes!”

                “Are you going to play or what?”

                Sometimes Kai wonders why he’s friends with this guy, and who, exactly, is supposed to be the older one. But he relents ( as he always does ) – that is, until the opening percussion and piano chords of Infinite’s _Nothing’s Over_ vibrates from his pocket, startling the controller right out of his hands.

                ( _“Why do you have Infinite as your ringtone?” an incredulous Jongdae had asked the first time he’d heard it, apparently scandalized that it wasn’t Growl or something._

_“It’s just for my sister. She really likes them,” he’d answered quickly before shuffling out of the room to take the call. He hadn’t seen it pertinent to clarify that she really just liked Sungjong. )_

“Hold on, it’s Jihye.” Pushing himself from the couch, Kai crosses over into the kitchen to pick up, leaving Taemin to set the game on pause and lean back against the leather to wait for his friend impatiently. It’s rare that both of them have enough time to actually hang out together; between the hectic schedules of two of SM’s biggest idol groups and the fact that Taemin was now living mostly at home, they don’t see each other much. But the beginning of the new year marks a relative downtime for SHINee as they’re preparing to release their newest Japanese single and the anticipation of Tokyo Dome hangs over the air; Kibum and Jinki are wrapping up things for the musical, and Jonghyun’s just at the tail end of his solo promotions. They haven’t been together as a group for much more than photoshoots for The Saem and some other small things, and frankly Taemin’s been feeling a little lonely, fractured off from the tight-knit family of five he’s been a part of for the last going-on seven years.

                Which, of course, is all the more reason to bother his best friend.

                Not that EXO hasn’t been busy too. With a new album dropping in a month, they’ll be starting promotions again and Kai’ll be either nowhere to be found or too tired to do much more than check up on him over the phone.

                With a sigh, he sinks further into the pleather, turning his head to stare out the dorm window. Kai’s voice is audible from the next room, but Taemin can’t hear what he’s saying. Probably talking to his sister about his dogs or something.

                Just then, someone rushes by just outside the window, startling Taemin to sitting up in surprise. They’d flashed by too fast for him to catch who it was, but it hadn’t been any of his members. What was anyone else doing so close to their dorm? And – it’d just been a quick glimpse, but Taemin could have _sworn_ the person who’d torn by in a blur of red had been wearing bunny ears. Not the ‘my friend is playing a prank on me during a photobomb’ kind -- legitimate bunny ears on a headband, like something straight out of a playboy magazine. Except that whoever it was had clearly been a guy. He’s about to shrug and dismiss it as some weirdo on the street or maybe someone from another group shooting for a variety show. It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that’d ever been done on one of those.

                But just as he’s about to slump back against the couch, the guy passes by again. But this time, he stops in front of the window and presses his hands against it, peering into the room with wide, searching eyes, like he’s looking for something or someone. That’s definitely a little out of the ordinary, especially since now that he’s getting a good look at him, Taemin realizes he recognizes the guy. The name is skipping his mind, but he definitely knows him; he’s from one of the other SM groups. By why the hell is he staring into SHINee’s dorm?

                Then, before Taemin can even get up and give him a weird look, the guy glances to his left and seems to see something there, an expression of relief crossing his face before he dashes off again, leaving Taemin sitting there feeling more than a little awkward. What’s that word Kai always complains about Baekhyun using during moments like this – _kkaepsong?_

                That had been one of the weirder things he’d ever seen done for a variety show ( he can’t really think of any better explanation for what had just happened, and honestly, he doesn’t really want to ). He’s about to lean back against the sofa again when _another_ disturbance breaks the settling calm, this time in the form of a loud, dorm-shaking rumble from just outside in the direction the strangely-familiar stranger had run off. It passes in a couple seconds, but it’s enough for Taemin to decide that whatever’s going on, it’s worth satisfying his curiosity for.

                Outdoors, there doesn’t seem to be anything odd. It’s a lot colder than the sixty degrees his phone had told him it’s supposed to be today, but that’s not really that weird. And the streets are completely empty, which, though a little unsettling, can be explained by the fact that it’s the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday and people are mostly at work. Only when Taemin looks around does something catch his eye – about half a block down, a giant hole gapes in the sidewalk, the earth uprooted and piled up beside it like some enormous animal had decided to make its home in the middle of a residential area. There hasn’t been any construction going on recently, and Taemin thinks he would have noticed earlier if there had been people digging up the street. Glancing around one more time to make sure nobody’s around to notice him, he steps outside, hugging his arms and curling in on himself for warmth as he jogs over to the hole. Kibum would definitely have something to say about the fact he’s going outside in just a light sweater and jeans without even putting on shoes first, but he doesn’t really see the need to get dressed just to investigate something half a block away.

                Curiously, the guy from earlier is nowhere to be seen. He probably just turned a corner somewhere up ahead. Bending over, Taemin peers into the hole, a little apprehensive but curious. It gapes open back at him, silent and strangely inviting, but he knows better than to go around jumping into random holes in the ground, especially since he can’t really see the bottom of this one. Just for the sake of it, he kicks a bit of the mound of dirt back into it, but nothing happens. He hadn’t expected anything to.

                Shrugging to himself, he turns around and heads back to the dorm, eager to be out of the cold. The warmth of the indoors welcomes him, and he rubs both arms, shivering. “Hey, Jongin-ah! You won’t guess what I found outside!”

                There’s no answer.

                Frowning, Taemin peeks into the room they’d just been in, playing video games, then into the kitchen where his friend had gone to take his phone call, but there’s no one there. Perplexed, Taemin checks around the dorm. Jongin definitely has to be done with his call by now; it’s been more than ten minutes. If he was going to be longer than that, he would’ve told him. But no matter where he looks ( he even checks the bathroom ), the dorm is utterly silent. “Jonginnie, come on! Okay, you got me; come out now!” He looks into the bedrooms, but doesn’t really expect his friend to be there considering it’s not his space. Seriously, there’s only so many places to hide. “Jongiiinnn, where are you? Come on, we have to finish the game!” It’s still on pause in the other room. No answer.

                Eventually, after frustratedly searching and yelling for ( and at ) his best friend for ten minutes, Taemin gives up and collapses back onto the couch with a huff. “Okay, I give up! Will you come out now?” Nothing. It’s weird; usually even Jongin would give in at this point, emerging from some hiding spot Taemin hadn’t thought to look, laughing at him. But that doesn’t happen this time, and after a while Taemin can only conclude that he’d ditched him. If it’d been an emergency, he would have at least left a note or something. Sulkily, he picks up the controller and exits out of the game, turning the console off.

                The next day, after breakfast, Kai finally calls him ( Taemin had been holding out on calling him after he’d unceremoniously ditched him, passive-aggressively angry ). “Hey, I just wanted to check in and make sure you’re okay.”

                “Of course I’m okay,” Taemin replies, surprise overtaking his annoyance for a second before he remembers it. “What the hell, Jongin? You just ditched me yesterday.”

                “Uhhh . . . ” Kai sounds uncertain on the other end, but Taemin’s not giving in that easily.

                “I spent like half an hour looking for you!” Okay, fifteen minutes max, but still. “We didn’t even get to finish our game. Did your sister need you for something?”

                “No . . . ?”

                Taemin only pouts more. “Then why’d you leave? I just went outside for a second to – oh! That’s right, I never told you about the hole!”

                “What are you talking about?”

                “There was a hole outside! Actually, a lot of weird things happened, but when I came back in, you were gone.”

                There’s an inordinate amount of silence on the other end before Kai’s voice comes back, sounding genuinely confused. “What are you talking about, Taemin-ah? I was done talking to Jihye in like five minutes, and you were asleep on the couch when I got back.”

                “Okay, you’re so funny. Ha ha.”

                “Uh, no, really, you were asleep. You looked really tired, so I just left when you didn’t wake up after half an hour. I had to meet the group for dance practice. I left you a note; didn’t you see it?”

                Now Taemin really knows Kai’s shitting with him. “You suck at lying,” he scoffs, pushing himself out of the chair and going back to the game room. “I wasn’t asleep at all; I went outside to look at a hole. And there wasn’t -- ”

                There, on the sofa, is a small piece of paper with Kai’s handwriting on it. Stopping mid-sentence, Taemin picks it up, brow furrowing.

                _Taemin-ah, you’ve been asleep for a while. I need to make it to practice, but it was really fun seeing you. I’ll call tomorrow morning as usual. Rest well._ _Jongin._

“Taeminnie? Hello? Are you okay?”

                He reads the note again, and then one more time, blinking to make sure he isn’t just dreaming this. Had he really been asleep? Or is this all some big practical joke? “I . . . think so?”


End file.
